A Montreal police officer accused of committing perjury and obstructing justice in a high-profile case brought against him and his partner saw the charges filed against him dropped this week.
David Chartrand, 39, had been a member of the Montreal police for 11 years when he was arrested in July 2016 with his partner Fayçal Djelidi, 41. The case made headlines because both men were part of a squad that investigated street gangs and had access to police informants.
The investigation that produced the charges was conducted by the Montreal police internal affairs division.
A Quebec Superior Court judge was scheduled to hear motions over the course of at least two days at the Montreal courthouse this week. But instead Justice Myriam Lachance was informed by prosecutor Nicolas Poulin on Wednesday that all four of the charges brought against Chartrand would be placed under a stay of proceedings through a “nolle prosequi” — a legal Latin term meaning it is no longer willing to prosecute the accused. Poulin said the decision to not prosecute Chartrand was made after new evidence led the prosecution to conclude it would be difficult to convict him.
Instead of hearing motions, the case against Djelidi, who still faces nine charges, was merely carried over to near the end of January.
All of the charges brought against Chartrand involved an investigation that he and Djelidi were conducting in June 2016. Both men were charged with committing perjury and obstructing justice by making a false declaration under oath, on June 10, 2016, to get a search warrant and other court orders during an investigation.
When Chartrand and Djelidi were arrested, along with two other members of the Montreal police who were never charged, then-police chief Philippe Pichet held a press conference and said the investigation began after “administrative irregularities” were discovered. He also said: “(These were) mistakes in the way to control sources and report different things.”
The arrests were made just before several serious allegations about the Montreal police internal affairs division were made public. The allegations set off a chain of events that led to the Chamberland Commission, a public inquiry into how the police spied on certain journalists, an investigation of the Montreal police internal affairs division and ultimately cost Pichet his job.